The Yellow Box Road

By John Martellaro

Published on: April 1, 1998

"If you pray hard enough you can make water run uphill. How hard? Why hard enough to make water run uphill, of course."

- Robert Heinlein

Apple Computer used to have a serious problem. They had some really imaginative computer savvy managers who would come up with some really bright ideas. The problem was, Apple had too many programmers who in Steve Job's own words "live on candy bars and collect swords." The result was a set of cool products, in Apple's narrow perspective, but without wide-spread acceptance and compelling utility. Working with PowerTalk and OpenDoc was like trying to get water to roll uphill. But with the purchase of Next, Apple acquired some really, really good programmers, chief among them Avie Tevanian. The difference is that now these programmers working for Avie are serving up technical solutions on a silver platter almost faster than Apple can absorb the impact into their strategic planning.

Now here is something, I'm guessing, that Apple will very likely do with its newfound technical capabilities. It is a brilliant stroke that would open up the entire PC and Macintosh community to Macintosh developers. There are some strong indicators that this bold move is already in the works.

Sonata on a Silver Platter

The basic idea is that the MacOS, namely the version codenamed Sonata (due in 1999), becomes Yellow Box enabled and runs on a microkernel. Yes, there will be a Blue Box for backwards compatibility, but the entire thrust of Macintosh development moves to the Yellow Box.

"How can this be?" you ask. The Apple OS engineers have been working on all kinds of possibilities. I'm guessing that very savvy Next Unix programmers with powerful desktop Macs and great tools are now able to manage the integration and development of OS components like never before. The MkLinux group has helped the Rhapsody group and vice-versa. Remember that a microkernel left over from Copland called the nukernel has been laying around unused. If the Apple software engineers can put a Mach kernel under a Unix system and then deftly insert a Blue Box into the soup, then they ought to also be able to put a microkernel under the MacOS and add a Yellow and Blue box there as well. When you can do these kinds of things, you create solutions that can alter the entire OS strategy.

Consider this. Suppose we start Sonata with a microkernel, either nukernel, Mach, or some other that Apple elects to use. Add the OS system support components like Open Transport and the HFS+ file system and whatever else is needed. Drop the Yellow Box and a Yellow Box Finder on top of that where applications are memory protected and pre-emptively scheduled. Then, just like Rhapsody, add a Blue box for backwards compatibility. (If an application in the Blue Box crashes, only the Blue Box need be re-started.) See the figure below. What does this do?

It brings absolute convergence of the two Apple OSes, Rhapsody/Unity and the legacy MacOS.

I can just imagine the speaker at this year's WWDC saying, "If you write for the Blue Box, you are writing a crippled application. BUT! If you write for the Yellow Box, your application runs on 1) MacOS 9 (Sonata), 2) Rhapsody/Unity, 3) WindowsNT (with support libraries), and possibly 4) any Unix system, like Solaris, if we make the libraries available there. What a compelling business proposition!!"

Application Convergence

Compelling indeed. Apple, having learned from Microsoft's development of WindowsNT, knows that Rhapsody users have to be able to run all their legacy applications. But, the structural integrity field of the legacy MacOS is collapsing, and further application development there is a waste of time. If Apple can get its developers to write for the Yellow Box, then modern, object oriented applications can run on either MacOS or Rhapsody/Unity without modification. What's more, MacOS users don't have to suffer Unix envy, and Apple won't have to foist a Unix OS on the, ahem, un-washed.

Riding the Industry Wave

If this were not compelling enough, there is another reason to do this. John Dvorak, in PC Magazine, April 7th issue, hints that Intel and Compaq would like to merge and write a new OS that could squeeze out Microsoft. Steve Jobs has already been talking to Intel about the StrongArm chip and the Merced chip. What are the chances that Steve has failed to mention the Yellow Box, object oriented technology to Andy Grove.

Duh....

Imagine a modern set of applications that run on WindowsNT, Windows9X, Macintosh and Unix systems. Imagine a modern OS duo - MacOS running these Yellow Box applications and a server platform, Rhapsody/Unity, based on 30-years Unix experience but with the modern, object oriented development system created by Next. These OSes and applications could run on both PowerPC and Intel. Think of the business opportunities for Yellow Box developers. Think of what Intel, Apple, and Compaq could do to Change The World.

Will Apple do this? Time will tell...

Copyright (©) 1998 John Martellaro